The blurb
Alessandra Cecchi is not quite fifteen when her father, a prosperous cloth merchant, brings a young painter back from northern Europe to decorate the chapel walls in the family's Florence palazzo. A child of Renaissance with a precocious mind and a talent for drawing, Alessandra is intoxicated by the artist's abilities. But Alessandra's parents have made plans for their daughter, and she is soon married off to a wealthy, much older man. Meanwhile, the reign of the Medicis, with their love of luxury, learning, and dazzling art, is being threatened by the hellfire preaching and increasing brutality of the fundamentalist monk Savonarola and his reactionary followers. As the city shudders with violence and change, Alessandra must find her own way -- and finally explore the passions she's kept so long at bay.
Why I decided to take on the read
First, I love the cover. The pages' thinness and color takes me to book heaven. And I like the way the blurb is written. And I share a thing with Alessandra -- I'm fighting for one of the passions. And the first line (of the novel) was so intriguing. It got me.
Take a look at the first page here.
